I am an avid social networker and get into a lot of discussions on how we can build our businesses and get more customers or clients . Just today, several of us were talking about this in MY favorite and most responsive networking media, Twitter .

I am asked to visit and comment on a lot of blogs and web sites in the course of each day and am often appalled at the content on these pages that the “writer” wants the whole internet world to see!

Some of these documents are from every-day people and / or amateurs who are just dabbling in writing or doing it for a hobby. Do not get me wrong, I feel these people should want their works to be error free and cleanly presented, BUT my biggest surprise, and what really saddens me, is that so many of the so-called PROS or really big businesses do not seem to know, or even worse, do not seem to CARE, that their sites or blogs are horrendous with the spelling, grammar and word usage mistakes!

I do understand that not everyone is going to be a spelling or grammar genius and am not putting down anyone who is not, BUT, there is really no excuse for having sloppy, error-laden text on your web site, on your blog, in your sales copy or eBook, etc. where there are so many ways you can either check it yourself or get someone, like ME, to do it for you!

If you do your document in any word processing software that I have seen, there is a spell-checker! There is also one in every email program I have ever used or even seen. Plus, you have the extra advantage of at least MOST blog sites, for example, of having one built in that comes up with errors as you make them.

Of course, the “usage” errors would probably still get by you if you are not a great speller but the worse mistakes should not escape notice as you type whatever you are saying.

Things a spell-checker will usually not spot are “usage” errors, like:

there their they’re
its it’s
see sea seas seize
stake steak
your you’re
for fore four

etc.

but usually DO let you know when ordinary, every day words with no synonyms are entered.

If in doubt, write your document in an email program and then use the spell-checker to check it out before you post it. Then, at least, the only errors that might get by would be those pesky “usage” ones.

There are also spell-checking web sites. Do a “search” for this type of resource and you can run your document through the online checkers.

For the best chance of having your document presented in its most professional and error-free presence, hire a Proofreading and Editing specialist.
This is what we DO so that you do not have to worry about anything except creating good, useful and interesting content!

If not MY company , find another that does the spell-checking and grammar checking FOR you. You might think you cannot afford this Service , but, frankly, if you are not an expert speller or great with grammar and word usage, you cannot afford NOT to avail yourself of this much needed help.

Why am I qualified to judge your writings and offer to help you present the best possible document? Well, I was an Honor Roll student in Spelling, Reading and English all through grade school AND high school, I was one of the top spellers of medical terms and transcription dictations as an adult at Rolla Technical Institute, where as an adult I took a year of Computerized Medical Office Technology, AND in February of 2010, I will celebrate TEN years of being the editor of my own marketing ezine, Rim Digest eZine , along with my wonderful references from my happy clients and to top it all off, like the cherry on top of the sundae, this is what I LOVE doing!

If you are a serious business owner, losing just ONE potential customer or client could have paid for your site to be “perfected”. Is it not time to put this on your agenda and into your budget or at least to double check your documents before you upload them to be shared by the entire net world? It is, of course, your decision, but I can honestly say that I, for one, do NOT do business with anyone who cannot spell or has more than the occasional grammar, usage or sentence structure error in a document that was meant to sell me something.

I am currently available to give your site or document a check-up to see if having a one-time or continuous clean-up is one of YOUR needs.

You can get in touch with me via email link on any of my pages or use this form to set something up with me to check out and possibly assist you in putting your best and most professional business foot forward.

Jan Tallent
Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance

Wondering whether you can afford one more employee? Why not consider a Virtual Assistant for those duties you need performed?

With the help from a writer I invited to share with my readers,

Let’s compare cost differences between the two…

Here you are the entrepreneur with a business that is nicely taking off with the grace of an eagle … Your dream is now a reality. Your agenda is now overflowing with meetings, you are working 50 hours PLUS per week, paperwork is piling up, and you’re about to lose your mind!

The amount of work you have at hand is not only keeping you up at night, but also prevent you from playing golf with the boys next weekend or getting your nails done with the girls. So congratulations, you have just posted your new “help wanted” ad for a full time administrative position.

So, what are your options? Well, you can hire full time help, outsource your work to a Virtual Assistant, or keep doing the administrative work yourself!

Making the decision to hire full/part time help is the traditional way, but does it mean that this is your best choice? Do you really know what you are paying for?

Based on surveys done by Salary.com and America Online, the average base salary for an administrative assistant in the United States is $39,795.00 per year, or $19.13 calculated on an 8 hour per workday.

Again, from these surveys, workers admit to wasting an average of 1.15 hours per workday, which adds up to $5,720 per year, per worker in wasted salary dollars. You could have re-invested that money into your business!

In other words, if you hire an assistant at $39,795.00 per year, you can expect to loose $5,720 per year on wasted time!

Your second option is outsourcing your administrative work to a Virtual Assistant.
Now, what is a Virtual assistant, and how can she or he help you?

First and foremost, a virtual assistant is NOT an employee, but rather a self-employed professional that offers administrative support services from her or his own home office.

A virtual assistant is a full time partner that has a vested interest in the growth of your business and will work in collaboration with you towards the success of your company!

When you outsource to a virtual assistant you only pay for the work contracted out and not for idle time frittered away at your expense! How much will that cost you? Rates usually vary between $20.00 and $45.00 per hour, depending on the expertise required and the project at hand.

In addition, because you are outsourcing your work, you are saving on the following: payments made to Medicare, workers comp, administrative costs, recruitment, base salary, benefits, office space and furnishings, equipment, etc.

On the other hand, if you would still rather do the administrative work yourself, let us examine if your rate of return is really worth it.

You contract your services at a price of $150.00 per hour, and, in this past week, you have spent 5 hours of your precious time doing routine work at the office.
In other words, you just lost $750.00 doing the work by yourself.

Now, if you would outsource your work to a Virtual Assistant, let’s say at a medium price of $35.00 per hour, your cost would be $175.00 and you would realize a savings of $575.00.

All and all the decision seems simple to me. Which would you rather do? Hire full time help, and pay for wasted time and equipment? Keep on doing the work yourself and lose money and marketing time for your business, or maybe take the proven and affordable route of outsourcing your work and hiring a Virtual Assistant.

Remember a Virtual Assistant is a professional that will work with you… A Virtual Assistant is a collaborative partner, and his or her success is measured by your success!

thanks for letting me use this article, Alba Figueroa
inpro-va.com

So, what CAN a Virtual Assistant do for YOU? Your Virtual Assistant can do any number of office tasks which can be sent to her or him via emails, uploaded to a web host, downloaded from your site / blog / webinar or other means and do it all from her or his home office.

Some of the duties that I can perform for you are:

Proofreading your document, book, report, sales message, email communication, web site or blog or any other item that you need checked for grammar and spelling and word usage errors.

Editing those errors and changing the word or phrase or spelling, etc. as needed to make your written item as perfect as possible.

Transcription which is a typed up document of your webinar, interview or any other spoken / audio file.

( with MY transcription service, you get FREE proofreading and editing thrown in! )

Data Back-Up so that in case of computer info loss due to crash, virus or other catastrophe or because you just want to have all of your important data stored on cd’s, dvd’s and/or stored on another computer, your important and valuable downloads, reports, files, etc. will be safely stored elsewhere for you.

Customer Support which can be your own help desk type set up or customer service, run by a virtual staff.

Social Networking Help to help you manage your growing social networks with maintenance and updates plus doing searches with your criteria on who and what you want to be networking with and for.

Blogging Maintenance for updating, proofreading and editing and other tasks to do with your blog and then making sure it is seen and the updates are announced in various mediums.

And various assorted duties that can be worked out between us by my asking you to email me to Schedule a Project or let me know what you are looking for in a Virtual Assistant.

Why not check out my rates and feel free to read my testimonials from happy clients and I am sure we can work something out!

To your success!

Jan Tallent
Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance

Working from home has many advantages and also a sort of familiarity
that can become a downright pitfall in some instances. It is easy
and sometimes quickly discovered that away from an office your
productivity is not as high as you thought it would be. Working from
a home office can easily become a productivity killer when a business
owner doesn’t stay on top of things. However, don’t fret!

This can be changed with a few simple steps to get your business
organized, making productivity easier.

First of all, realize what you do is run a business.

Your business needs a permanent place to live.

It could be your dining room, a corner of your den or the entire den.
Some people set up shop in their garage or kitchen. Wherever you decide that your home office will reside, recognize that it is your work space and nothing else can share that spot.

Yes, that includes the laundry you forgot to fold last night, too.

Moving on, now that you have an office space, set some guidelines
for how you will run your business. These guidelines don’t run to
the particulars of your chosen industry but more to organization
for better operation of the enterprise. In plain terms, if everything
is in its place, you won’t waste time looking for it.

A filing system will be your best friend.

This includes a filing cabinet for important papers.
Every correspondence doesn’t have to exist in paper form.
Contractual agreements with clients and copies of past invoices
can be filed, but emails don’t need to be. Save yourself some time,
money and fresh air by not printing every client email that comes
to your inbox.

An electronic filing system keeps emails, project specs and proposals
organized by client without adding to the paperwork you already have
to handle. Electronic files are easy to organize and can be zipped
to clients in an instant if need be.

You won’t even have to use snail mail.

Also, keep an in and out box on your desk (we almost forgot about the desk).

Incoming mail is organized as soon as it hits the desk.
Junk mail is shredded, orders are filed in a box to be
filled and other mail is sorted according to purpose.

Dealing with mail first thing prevents anything from getting overlooked.

Along the same lines, create a priority box.

This is the box that will be checked first thing in the morning
and last thing before you leave your home office. In the morning,
the box contains all of the items that need attention that day.
In the evening, organize the contents to be ready for the next morning.

This makes it much easier to have your daily work tasks set
when you get to the “office” each morning. No more wasted time
planning your day while an hour or two of it is vanishing.

Low productivity in a home office arises mainly from disorganization.
We often aren’t sure what we want to work on or what is most important, so it takes a little while to get that together. If you are organized from the beginning and keep your priorities current, you won’t spend your time deciding what to do next – you’ll already know.

Good bye time wasters, hello productivity!

Jan Tallent
Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance

Jan Tallent is the owner of Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance for 11 years, a marketing and small business online newsletter for going on 10 years, an internet marketer for my own digital products PLUS tangible products and an avid social networker . I also have an eBay store so stay pretty busy 10 to 12 hours per day, mostly on my computer and the net.

I am concentrating my VA biz on proofreading , editing and transcriptions as these are my favorite assignments to take on and where my strengths lie. If you are in need of these or any of my other Virtual Assistance services, send me a message and we can Talk about and schedule your project or projects .